Moonlit Knight Travels: Tom and Lori Visit Yellowstone for First Time

On Saturday, the four of us (C&C stayed at the condo) visited Yellowstone for a full day. Since this was Tom and Lori's first visit to the first national park, I wanted to give them an idea of how diverse Yellowstone is. With that in mind, we drove to one of my favorite thermal areas in the park, the lesser visited Norris Geyser Basin. I feel that Norris is an impressive basin and it avoids the huge crowds near Old Faithful, which detracts from the overall experience.

We hiked the bigger loop at Norris (2 miles or so?) and got a good taste of the other-worldly landscape. Veteran Geyser put on a good show and, for my money, a geyser like this is more interesting than Old Faithful anyway. It spouted boiling water in several directions and steam hissed out of vents on the sides of the geyser. Tom filmed the event with his digicam. I should have done the same so I could post it here for all to see.

Veteran Geyser

A Spring at Norris Geyser Basin

After our warm hike at Norris we drove on to Canyon Village to grab some lunch at the sit-down diner. The classic hamburger and chocolate shake meal was good and really hit the spot. We were quite hungry!

Then, it was on to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone... I had not visited this attraction all summer so I was looking forward to it. The kids were always more interested in looking for wildlife so the waterfall stops were not a priority.

I chose a trail near Lower Falls that I had not done before and, appropriately, it was named Uncle Tom's Trail. It consisted of a 500 vertical foot drop via stairs to a spectacular lookout as close as you can get to the Lower Falls on the south side of the canyon. It was a good workout for the ol' knee. Down was hard on the knee but up was hard on the lungs. My heart rate was 150+ by the time we reached the top! It felt to get some cardio in though.